Whether it was the 15,000+ in attendance that motivated them, or the opportunity to upstage the hype machine in the Miami Heat, the Atlanta Hawks showed something that the Miami Heat did not in the 98-89 win over LeBron and co last night in Atlanta; effort.
Now that could be a good or bad thing as a Heat fan because it did not seem like LeBron put much effort into last nights exhibition match up and still ended up producing roughly 50 percent of the Heats offense as he scored 38 points in 38 minutes, the most he has registered in either category. There were only two other players in double figures last night for the Heat and that was Udonis Haslem with 10 points and Chris Bosh with 14 points who also registered 14 rebounds.
But perhaps the brightest spot of last nights game was the play of veteran Juwan Howard who is vying for a spot on the final 15 man roster. He did what is expected of the Heat bigs. He set wonderful screens, made appropriate passes and scored a couple of impressive baskets as he registered two baskets and two rebounds. However, as previously mentioned, Howards presence will not be shown on the stat sheet, but in the intangibles in the game such as setting a productive screen. Those who watched the game last night heard the praise that Reggie Miller was giving him.
The rest of the team effort was lack luster at best. Each time a shot was put up, there was no one to be found underneath to grab rebounds and the highly energetic Atlanta Hawks took advantage of it. I for one have been a fan of how the Hawks have played over the past couple of years and they seem to get better every year led by the high-flying Josh Smith and the other highly regarded free agent this past off-season, Joe Johnson who received about a $20 million dollar more contract than LeBron this past off-season. Johnson was stellar in his performance last night as he registered 27 points in a more balanced attack of the Hawks.
However, once again this is a pre-season match up and there was too many variables to judge the performance of either team. The Heats offense is going to revolve around hitting open jump shots and neither Mario Chalmers nor Eddie House provided that last night which is the sole reason why they were brought onto this team. Is it cause for concern? Perhaps, because anyone who follows the game of basketball knows that if shots are not falling it becomes contagious. The only remedy is to be productive on boards which was a push last night with the Heat out rebounding the Hawks by one (49-48). James is keeping a cool head about the three straight losses in pre-season, much like Peyton Manning would after the Colts lost every preseason game a couple years ago and went onto win the Super Bowl. James is eyeing January as a time-table for the team to peak.
I do not know what the motivation is behind a comment like that, but I would assume James knows more about the operation of the team than some blogger would. I would suspect that Wade's injury is a phantom injury to deal with his child custody case in Chicago. I could only imagine the emotional drain on a hearing such as that and traveling back and forth from Chicago to Miami and all over the country would only add to the stress of the situation. It is probably best for Wade to be with his family in a time like this.
So questions can fly about the lack of preparedness of the team entering the season, I am not going to make a definite opinion about this team until they face the Boston Celtics this Tuesday. Will they be prepared? Perhaps not as much as they would like to be with Wade out, but as I mentioned in my previous post, these are professionals with Olympic experience with one another. This is also a long, long season and it is certainly not worth risking an injury this early in the season. The Heat have too much at stake to risk an injury in the pre-season.
The Heat may or may not take on the Orlando Magic tonight due to playing at a neutral site....at hockey arena. First Moscow, now this? Someone in the scheduling department of the Heat seem to not be taking there job seriously and I would not be surprised if the game does not take place tonight. Both teams have too much at stake to risk an injury in a pre-season game. Hate to keep reiterating this, but it is the truth.
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